Students join in immigration protests

Hundreds of Houston-area students skipped school today to participate in rallies protesting tighter restrictions on immigration, some of them determined to march all the way from Missouri City to downtown.

Among them were about 100 students from Jeff Davis High School, a few hundred from Austin and Sam Houston highs, 65 from Alief Hastings and nearly 100 from Eisenhower. A Davis student, Hector Arguelles, distributed a flyer giving a description of pending federal legislation that would make it a crime rather than a civil violation to live in the U.S. without proper documentation; he and the other students walked out of school this morning and marched to City Hall, where they were greeted by City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado (who, we imagine, was happy to have something to do that didn't involve the payroll). Other students from Austin and Sam Houston highs also came to City Hall; HISD dispatched buses to return them to their campuses, and they were reportedly back in school by 1 p.m.

In Alief, about 65 students at Hastings High walked out of class and marched around the perimeter of the school property; the Eisenhower students walked off their buses this morning and rallied at the New Flea Market on Long Point Road. The most impressive, though — at least in terms of distance — was a group of about 150 students from Hightower High School in Missouri City, who left early this morning intending to walk to downtown Houston (door-to-door, that's just over 23 miles). They were escorted by Stafford, Sugar Land, Missouri City and Fort Bend ISD police until they reached the Houston city limits, where HPD took over. It's not clear whether they've made it downtown yet.

School officials said they'll discuss how to handle the absences based on district policies.